Dear Friend of The Loyola School,
The BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES tells us: “For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.” The time has come to announce the end of my nearly seven years as president of The Loyola School. A search committee is in place to seek our next president.
With my 90th birthday on the horizon, it is time to pass the baton to a younger person, someone with fresh eyes and dynamic energy, who can lead our growing school through its next phase of development. Though I will step aside upon the arrival of the next president, I will be available to assist in any way that new president should wish.
I am so grateful for all our school has accomplished since we opened in 2017 with a single prekindergarten level. We have done so only because God blessed us with a founding steering committee of expert educators; 12 key financial founders; gifted administrative leaders, teaching staff and volunteers; our children and families; our deeply supportive parish community; our development team and countless amazing benefactors.
All of you, working together, have made The Loyola School – now five preschool and elementary grades, and still growing – an exciting part of a Jesuit educational ecosystem in Baltimore. We are honored to stand with St. Ignatius Loyola Academy and Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in educating children from underserved neighborhoods in our city.
The work ahead for our school, our board and our next president is challenging and demanding. They must be creative and resourceful.
They must always engage dedicated supporters to fund scholarships for, eventually, 200 prekindergarten through fourth-grade students.
They must complete the final phase of our $10 million capital campaign to refurbish five row houses into a state-of-the-art elementary school facility.
They will continue constantly to evaluate our academic curriculum, religious program and ancillary programs.
Most important, they – and especially our next president – will continue to articulate our mission, vision and Jesuit values and ensure that The Loyola School lives up to those commitments.
Nothing will be more essential in the work of the search team than to find a leader who believes in and lives out the values and virtues of Ignatian spirituality and our Jesuit educational tradition.
Our school is flourishing; our little ones are thriving. I know that from the numbers.
More important: I see it every day in glorious smiles on the faces of our parents. I feel it in enthusiastic hugs from students who wrap themselves around my legs when I visit their classrooms. I hear it in the inspired enthusiasm of our teachers and staff.
We are making a difference. And I am so deeply grateful to you and to everyone who is a part of The Loyola School. I am blessed to know you.
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam et Bonum Animarum: For God’s Greater Glory and the Well-Being of God’s People.
Sincerely,
Rev. William J. Watters, S.J.
President
The Loyola School
